Teen Drinking; Crime or Culture?

[historyteach]

A tv special at 7 PM tonight on NBC
Also, live streamed on www.turntoten.com
Commercial free.
Respectful discussion, including parents, teens, police, a convicted teen serving time, and other involved.

Just a respectful informational post, in case anyone is interested.

Shalom!

[Alera]

Thanks. I am going to try to catch it.

[nolonger]

Interesting. Nearly every single person on the show thinks it is a bad idea for teenagers to drink. Everyone assumes that “drinking” means “insane binge drinking.” Shouldn’t the emphasis be on teaching teenagers to drink – responsibly, among adults, in social situations?

I wonder what they think is going to happen at age 21 – by what magic are people going to learn how to drink socially? And what kind of weird message is being sent out (about life, about the adult world, about growing up) if you suggest that alcohol is so powerful, so evil, so dangerous, that you can end up in court just for possessing it… but it is something that your parents can freely use and enjoy. Seems like the most sane people here (mentioned, but not allowed to speak in the segments I saw) are the parents who throw supervised parties for their kids, make sure things don’t get out of hand, make sure no one drives a car, etc.

Don’t get me wrong – from personal experience, I know what alcohol can do to a small segment of the population (including me). It just seems to me that the approach of most of the people on the show is perfectly designed to PRODUCE, not to prevent dangerous drinking among kids.

[Alera]

I have a major problem with drinking anyway. I don't mind people that drink responsibly. I grew up with alcohol. My grandfather always served wine with our fancy dinners, he had beer on the weekends etc. He always had alcohol available for business guests that would stop by. I was also taught DON'T DRINK OR DRIVE.

The good things I learned from that included the fact that abuse of alcohol was always a big no-no. Trust me, they would have known. Luckily for me, I had a very negative experience the one time I got drunk, and have never had more than a glass of wine with dinner since.

I see too many accidents to this day from drunk drivers. I get so angry. You combine alcohol, which lowers your inhibitions, with the fact teens already feel they are untouchable, and you have a dangerous mix.

[sojourner]

Nolonger:

I gotta say that your idea of parents allowing supervised parties might sound "high-minded" in theory - but I have never met one of those parents who informed me that my teenager would be at their home and allowed to drink!!

Ring, ring. "Oh, hello, this is Johnny's parent. Just wanted to let you know that when you son comes to Johnny's party tonight, we will be allowing your son to drink. Is that okay with you? And how many beers would you like your son to drink? Just two? Okay, we'll mark that down for two beers for your son. And do you want to drop him off and pick him up so he doesn't get in trouble for drinking and driving, or is it okay if he sleeps here?"

[nolonger]

Maybe it would be a better idea than having kids getting blasted, off in the woods some place, convinced that the only think you can do with alcohol is to glug it down till it comes back up again. Convinced that drinking is something you do in secret and something you lie about and hope you don't get caught.